Breaking the logjam on Butano Creek
by Pete Holloran

Beavers were the first hydraulic engineers of the arid West. The wetlands caused by their dams were so important in recharging local aquifers and regulating the flow of water that the plumbing was never quite the same after they were nearly wiped out by trappers.

Resurgent populations of beavers are therefore welcome along many rivers, but not here on Butano Creek. Their dams are too effective, it seems, in slowing the flow of water; they cause flooding. Flooding may be a fact of life, like sex and wildfire, but that doesn't mean people want to witness it in their living rooms. So the dams are being taken out. Interfering with cute mammals in this way is not common, but the dam removers hold a trump card. Trappers were responsible for the presence - not the absence - of beavers in Butano Creek. So in a way, removing their dams may be making amends for the error made in the late 1930s when they were introduced here, far outside their native range.

It's much more complicated making amends for all the other insults the 20th century has heaped upon the watersheds of Butano and Pescadero Creeks. That was the message of a forum on Pescadero Marsh recently sponsored by the Committee for Green Foothills. Supervisor Rich Gordon herded a half-dozen experts through a whirlwind introduction to Pescadero Marsh during the first half of the evening.

Then the real star of the panel spoke. Mike Rippey, now in his third term as a Napa County Supervisor, charmed us with a fascinating account of flood control work along the Napa River. A series of costly floods had demonstrated the need for flood management; the voters' rejection of several traditional plans demonstrated the need for alternative solutions. The key, according to Supervisor Rippey, was that every interest group had to give up something.

And so a diverse coalition of conservationists, fishermen, vintners, ranchers, and business people helped rally support for a "living river." In 1998 two-thirds of the voters agreed to raise the sales tax to help fund the restoration plan. No wonder the evolution of the Napa River project has received so much attention lately, including a chapter - "How a town can live with a river and not get soaked" - in The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable (Island Press, 2002) by Stanford University biologist Gretchen Daily and Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Katherine Ellison.

It's too early to tell whether the future of flood control along Butano Creek will inspire such accolades. The standing-room-only crowd at the Pescadero Marsh forum testified to the high level of community interest in addressing the impacts of flooding along Butano Creek. The example of the Napa River project may yet serve as a beacon to light the way ahead. But the forum could also mark a rare episode of civility in the long-running battle over the future of Butano Creek. Sandwiched between flood waters and ocean tides, scarce is the middle ground in Pescadero Marsh.

The concerns raised by the Pescadero Municipal Advisory Council in recent years about flooding are understandable. But the solutions it proposes - raising the road, removing riparian vegetation, dredging the creek, and circling the wagons against all government agencies - make it hard to find common ground with those who do not share their certainty about the long-term viability of such solutions.

It is true that the lower reach of Butano Creek does not carry sediment as well as it once did. A sustainable solution, however, will probably require a more holistic approach, one that looks at the entire watershed in addition to the constricted channel of the lower reach. If the water coming out of the tap is rusty, it might help to replace the faucet, but the problem probably lies elsewhere. And I'd think pretty hard about investing lots of money fixing the plumbing if rising sea level (due to global warming) is likely to flood the whole house.

Despite such differences, everyone at the Pescadero Marsh forum clearly shared many common points of reference, including a deep appreciation for this special corner of the San Mateo coast. And we agree about beavers, too. If removing beaver dams together would help break the political logjam, then let's get muddy.

Pete Holloran has been a naturalist and botanist for the past decade, working in San Francisco and elsewhere to restore the native flora of the central California coast. He is working toward his Ph.D. in environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz.